Monday, February 23, 2015

Friday, December 5, 2014

I know I haven't been very active here for a little while. I guess life happened! I planned on going back to university in last September and that didn't worked exactly as planned. It was for the best really.

It made me realize that I missed manual therapy very much and that technically I still was a certified massage therapist. So I hit the books hard and practiced like a mad man! I got my certification as a strength and conditioning coach and a FMS specialist. Since I have never been convinced that Swedish massage was as good as I've been told, I have been teaching myself many more techniques inspired from Thai and Corean massage, Trager, Resistance-Release, Active Release and more stuff from osteopathy and physiotherapy. I also started a class in Osteodynamy, which follows exactly what I like : conditioning a proper movement.

So I've build my website (in french only) and started seeing patients. I guess my style and methods will change a lot in the next 3-5 years, but so far, I see very little serious pathology, such as tendinitis, hernia or strain, and a lot of pain due to dysfunction. The Resistance Release technique, which I picked up from Deane Juhan works very well both to restore proper structure and recondition proper movement. It just doesn't fit most people's idea of a massage though!

Because of all that, I have danced very little for the past 2 months. Plus, +Vivianne Carrier hurt her shoulder and I suddenly became short of partners. On the bright side, I have been going out to social dance more than usual and I've even been having fun, which rarely happened when I was running my dance school.

Other great news, my left shoulder is starting to get better. I discovered a couple months back that I have a separation in my AC joint, which started hurting more than usual after a heavy pressing cycle. After that, I could only press upward! Going through the FMS certification and watching a lot of Gray Cook's material made me realize that I have a major asymmetry in my shoulder's mobility and that my pressing pattern was all wrong.

I have been working really hard on restoring proper mobility in my shoulder and make my sapulae move as they should. 2 weeks ago, I could floor press 115lbs again almost pain free! This is not a lot of weight by any standard, but it's a start.

Then last week, I pull something in my back practicing my sumo deadlift with bands... It's still a bit sensitive whenever my back is in flexion, but it's getting better going through some carefully planed rehab. I just turned 34yo, so I guess i have to stop being so careless and warm up before deadlifting.